1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to the field of automatic systems for inserting the wire leads of electrical components into printed circuit boards and specifically to the area of providing improved protection to the oriented leads wires of such components stored on tape reels.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Automatic machine assembly of electrical printed circuit boards requires a continuous and ready supply of electrical components such as those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,329,776. Such components have radially oriented leads sandwiched between layers of tape and precisely spaced therealong and wound on a reel for storage and subsequent loading into an automatic insertion machine. The automatic insertion machine, of course, requires that the leads of each component be precisely located on the tape and be properly oriented, in order that accurate insertion can be made into specified apertures in the printed circuit board. In order to overcome the tendency of components to become interstitially meshed together when wound onto the reel, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,447,287 and 4,516,737 illustrate the use of an interleaved strip of protective paper wound onto the reels. The interleaved strip of protective paper provides a separation between each layer of components and reduces their tendency of becoming interstitially locked in between components of another layer.